Monday, October 31, 2016
School Segregation: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), NYC is, of course," the most segregated school system in the country.. I went through being the only Black kid in class from the third to the 12th grade. The first day I was called the "N" word and spat on by White parents. By high school I almost lost my left eye to a racist attack which was one of many racist attacks.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Jorge Ramos: How Trump ‘Emboldened’ Hate Groups in America - The Daily Beast
"You can draw a straight line from Jorge Ramos’s confrontation with Donald Trump to his new documentary Hate Rising, which premieres this Sunday night at 10 p.m. on both Fusion in English and Univision in Spanish.
“The documentary’s origin is precisely that press conference,” Ramos tells The Daily Beast in a new interview the morning after the third and final presidential debate. “Because that’s when I realized that hate is contagious.”
It was late August 2015, just two months after Trump launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and criminals, when the Univision anchor and Fusion host stood up at a press conference and tried to ask him about his anti-immigration rhetoric. “Go back to Univision!” Trump shouted at Ramos as his security guards removed him from the room.
Trump later said he was willing to sit down for an interview with Ramos, but never followed through on that promise. More than a year after their press conference clash, Ramos maintains that he was “right to confront Donald Trump right from the beginning,” unlike some other journalists who he believes came to that conclusion much too late in the election cycle.
In the film, Ramos meets with an Imperial Wizard of the KKK on a dark Texas night and watches silently as a group of neo-Nazis in Ohio burn an enormous swastika. Like the Trump supporter who told him to “get out of my country,” white nationalist leader Jared Taylor tells Ramos he doesn’t belong in the United States. “Unless whites are prepared to exclude people, then they will be shoved aside,” Taylor says. It is a position rooted in a deep fear about losing what he views as his rightful place in the social order, and is eerily reminiscent of Trump’s desire to “Make America Great Again.”
Though he did not speak to Ramos for the film, Trump dominates Hate Rising—especially in the exclusive clip below when the host visits a group of children in Texas who fear the prospect of their parents’ deportation should Trump win the presidency. “My dad is from Mexico and if Donald Trump wins, he’s going back to Mexico and we’re going to be separated,” one 8-year-old boy says. This, Ramos tells me, is “The Trump Effect.”
Jorge Ramos: How Trump ‘Emboldened’ Hate Groups in America - The Daily Beast
No, that's not 'locker room talk' Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe and sports reporter and editor Cindy Boren join Joy Reid to explain that Donald Trump getting caught bragging about possibly committing sexual assault on tape is not even close to ‘locker room talk,’ as the GOP nominee has claimed. - AM Joy on MSNBC
Friday, October 21, 2016
Internet Attack Disrupts Major Websites - The New York Times
"SAN FRANCISCO — Major websites were inaccessible to some East Coast users in the United States Friday morning and to people across the country in the early afternoon after a company that serves as an internet switchboard said it was under attack.
Users reported problems reaching a range of websites, including Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, Etsy, SoundCloud and The New York Times.
Dyn, whose servers monitor and reroute internet traffic, said it began experiencing what security experts call a distributed denial-of-service attack just after 7 a.m. The company, based in Manchester, N.H., said it had fended off the assault by 9:30 a.m. But by 11:52 a.m., Dyn said it was again under attack.
A distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS, occurs when hackers flood the servers that run a target’s site with internet traffic until it stumbles or collapses under the load. Such attacks are common, but there is evidence they are becoming more powerful, more sophisticated and increasingly aimed at core internet infrastructure providers.
Going after companies like Dyn can cause far more damage than aiming at a single website."
Internet Attack Disrupts Major Websites - The New York Times
Thursday, October 20, 2016
California judge who mocked blind man emblematic of failed traffic court system | US news | The Guardian
"When Prentiss Mayo showed up to traffic court on 19 October 2015, he tried to explain that he was blind and that his impairment affected his case.
Judge Taylor Culver wasn’t having it.
“I don’t believe any of it,” Culver said repeatedly in his Oakland, California, courtroom before he ordered Mayo to pay a $221 fine on fare evasion charges. The case was quickly closed, but the judge’s dismissive remarks about Mayo’s blindness didn’t stop.
“Sit over there,” Culver said.
“Sit over where?” Mayo replied, confused.
Culver laughed. “Man, I like this. You really got style. It’s all lies. Sit over there on the right-hand side of the courtroom.”
Mayo, 34, was stunned to hear the mockery and asked again where he should go.
“You’ll find it,” Culver replied.
“I’ve never been so embarrassed in my whole life,” Mayo said in a recent interview, explaining that he lost his vision after a stabbing attack. “It just really felt like he denied my whole experience.”
This week, Culver, who some attorneys say is one of the cruelest traffic judges in the state, was accused of “willful misconduct” by the California commission on judicial performance. The case offers a rare window into the inner workings of the controversial traffic courts that have burdened low-income people with insurmountable debts for minor offenses.
California judge who mocked blind man emblematic of failed traffic court system | US news | The Guardian
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
NYPD Cop Who Killed Mentally Ill Woman Was Sued Twice for Excessive Force - The Daily Beast
"An NYPD officer who killed a mentally ill woman in her Bronx apartment on Tuesday was sued twice for excessive force before Tuesday’s fatal encounter.
Around 6 p.m. Tuesday night, Sgt. Hugh Barry and an unnamed officer responded to reports of Deborah Danner acting "in an irrational manner" in a the hallway of her apartment building. An NYPD spokesperson told The Daily Beast neighbors had made “multiple 911 calls” about her behaviour on previous date.
This latest call involved a pair of scissors, which Danner was allegedly wielding while acting erratically in the hall. When police arrived, Danner had returned to her apartment, still clutching the scissors. An officer persuaded her to put them down. Then, according to police, the scene grew chaotic. Danner allegedly picked up a baseball bat and approached Barry. Instead of using his taser, as police protocol suggests, Barry shot Danner in the chest twice, killing her.
"What is clear in this one instance, we failed. I want to know why it happened," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said during a Wednesday press conference. "That's not how it's supposed to go. It's not how we train, our first obligation is to preserve life, not to take a life when it can be avoided. We need to know why.”
The NYPD’s top brass is now investigating why Barry resorted to lethal force, but his service history suggests trigger-happy tendencies.
In 2012, Barry was allegedly part of a violent arrest on 25-year-old Gregory Peters. According to a 2012 lawsuit, Peters was lawfully outside a midtown Manhattan building when officers pepper sprayed him, and forced him to the ground, where they punched and kicked him.
Barry was the only officer named in the case, which also accuses him of booking Peters on false charges “to cover up the above mentioned acts of brutality and abuse of authority.”
City attorneys settled the 2012 case for an undisclosed sum without admitting fault."
NYPD Cop Who Killed Mentally Ill Woman Was Sued Twice for Excessive Force - The Daily Beast
Around 6 p.m. Tuesday night, Sgt. Hugh Barry and an unnamed officer responded to reports of Deborah Danner acting "in an irrational manner" in a the hallway of her apartment building. An NYPD spokesperson told The Daily Beast neighbors had made “multiple 911 calls” about her behaviour on previous date.
This latest call involved a pair of scissors, which Danner was allegedly wielding while acting erratically in the hall. When police arrived, Danner had returned to her apartment, still clutching the scissors. An officer persuaded her to put them down. Then, according to police, the scene grew chaotic. Danner allegedly picked up a baseball bat and approached Barry. Instead of using his taser, as police protocol suggests, Barry shot Danner in the chest twice, killing her.
"What is clear in this one instance, we failed. I want to know why it happened," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said during a Wednesday press conference. "That's not how it's supposed to go. It's not how we train, our first obligation is to preserve life, not to take a life when it can be avoided. We need to know why.”
The NYPD’s top brass is now investigating why Barry resorted to lethal force, but his service history suggests trigger-happy tendencies.
In 2012, Barry was allegedly part of a violent arrest on 25-year-old Gregory Peters. According to a 2012 lawsuit, Peters was lawfully outside a midtown Manhattan building when officers pepper sprayed him, and forced him to the ground, where they punched and kicked him.
Barry was the only officer named in the case, which also accuses him of booking Peters on false charges “to cover up the above mentioned acts of brutality and abuse of authority.”
City attorneys settled the 2012 case for an undisclosed sum without admitting fault."
NYPD Cop Who Killed Mentally Ill Woman Was Sued Twice for Excessive Force - The Daily Beast
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
The Government’s Addiction to ‘Secret Law’ - The New York Times
"The Central Intelligence Agency’s torture of detainees, and the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ international communications, were two of the most controversial programs our government implemented after Sept. 11. Both are now widely considered to have been illegal, even though both were authorized by official legal analyses that were withheld from the public — a phenomenon known as “secret law.”
The notion of secret law is as counterintuitive as it is unsettling. When most of us think of law, we think of statutes passed by Congress, and we take for granted that they are public."
The Government’s Addiction to ‘Secret Law’ - The New York Times
The notion of secret law is as counterintuitive as it is unsettling. When most of us think of law, we think of statutes passed by Congress, and we take for granted that they are public."
The Government’s Addiction to ‘Secret Law’ - The New York Times
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Is This Christian Campus Group Purging LGBT Sympathetic Members? - The Daily Beast
"nterVarsity, one of the largest Christian presences on campuses, shocked members with a hardline stance on LGBT issues that many interpreted as a step to purging its ranks.
When InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA endorsed Black Lives Matter last December, it saw racial reconciliation as “an expression of the gospel.” The evangelical student outreach, which has 1,011 chapters on 667 campuses, was both criticized and praised.
A recent controversy over the group’s position on same-sex relationships and how it affects employees, however, shows that any fears of their impending liberal takeover are greatly exaggerated.
Technically, nothing in InterVarsity’s recent statement on same-sex relationships is unusual for a conservative evangelical ministry or InterVarsity itself. In fact, that is only one of several discussions—including divorce, pornography, and exploitation—that are included. It is this, however, that is having the most immediate impact given its college campus context. Like any extramarital sex, they say, “same-sex sexual activity is outside of God’s will.” It is “unnatural because it is not consistent with God’s original intent for sexuality.”
The statement complicates things for many of InterVarsity’s employees who are LGBTQ+ or affirming straight allies. Employees who disagree with the organization’s position are asked to tell their supervisors, after which a two-week process of “involuntary” termination is initiated.
Is This Christian Campus Group Purging LGBT Sympathetic Members? - The Daily Beast
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Friday, October 14, 2016
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Marijuana Arrests Outnumber Those for Violent Crimes, Study Finds - The New York Times
"Arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana exceeded those for all violent crimes last year, a new study has found, even as social attitudes toward the drug have changed and a number of cities and states have legalized its use or decriminalized small quantities.
And a disproportionate number of those arrested are African-Americans, who smoke marijuana at rates similar to whites but are arrested and prosecuted far more often for having small amounts for personal use, according to the study. The arrests can overwhelm court systems."
Marijuana Arrests Outnumber Those for Violent Crimes, Study Finds - The New York Times
And a disproportionate number of those arrested are African-Americans, who smoke marijuana at rates similar to whites but are arrested and prosecuted far more often for having small amounts for personal use, according to the study. The arrests can overwhelm court systems."
Marijuana Arrests Outnumber Those for Violent Crimes, Study Finds - The New York Times
Racial Stereotyping is the "Worst Thing" for Our Criminal Justice System | Huffington Post
"In 2007, an Aurora, Colo., jury convicted Miguel Angel Peña-Rodriguez on three misdemeanor counts of sexual misconduct for allegedly accosting two teenagers at the racetrack where he worked.
Racial Stereotyping is the "Worst Thing" for Our Criminal Justice System | Huffington Post
After the trial, two jurors reported to defense lawyers that another juror had said the defendant was guilty “because he is Mexican and Mexican men take whatever they want.”
Did that and other alleged slurs unfairly weigh on the jury’s decision to convictPeña-Rodriguez? Or should the juror’s words be protected by state and federal rules that guarantee the secrecy of jury proceedings? That was the question before the Supreme Court Tuesday.
The Court should not hesitate in its conclusion. We are living in an era when a major party presidential candidate declares before the world that Mexican immigrants are “rapists” and “killers;” in an era in which police shoot too frequently at unarmed black men because they are wrongfully stereotyped as aggressive and violent. The Peña-Rodriguez case provides the perfect opportunity for the Court to renounce the systemic racism that has shadowed the American story since its beginning and instead reaffirm our abiding constitutional principle of equality for all.
As Justice Elena Kagan observed during oral arguments, using particular stereotypes about race and criminality is not just in conflict with constitutional principles of individual equality, but it would also be “the worst thing that you can suggest about our criminal justice system, that it allows that to happen.”
The Court should rule in favor of Peña-Rodriguez to make clear that racial prejudice has no place in our judicial system."
Racial Stereotyping is the "Worst Thing" for Our Criminal Justice System | Huffington Post
Trump's Wrongly Conflates Black People and Inner Cities - The Atlantic
"During the second presidential debate, Donald Trump was asked whether he could be a president to “all the people in the United States.” He had a very specific answer: “I would be a president for all of the people, African Americans, the inner cities,” he replied. Later in the debate, he spoke again of how he was going to help “the African Americans,” who lived in “inner cities,” suffering from high poverty rates, bad educational systems, and no jobs.
There might have been a time when conflating inner cities and African Americans was appropriate shorthand, but it’s just not accurate anymore. The majority of African Americans are living both above the poverty line and outside of the inner cities, rendering Trump’s comments misleading and factually inaccurate."
Trump's Wrongly Conflates Black People and Inner Cities - The Atlantic
There might have been a time when conflating inner cities and African Americans was appropriate shorthand, but it’s just not accurate anymore. The majority of African Americans are living both above the poverty line and outside of the inner cities, rendering Trump’s comments misleading and factually inaccurate."
Trump's Wrongly Conflates Black People and Inner Cities - The Atlantic
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
See The REAL Reason Denzel Refused To Kiss White Women In Movies | I Love Old School Music
"It had been twenty years (in 1992’s Malcolm X) since Denzel had kissed a White woman on screen until more recently in the 2012 movie, “Flight.” He had his reason for not doing so and it had nothing to do with him disliking White women or anything like that, but it apparently had a lot to do with with his respect for Black women and his disapproval of how Black actresses were all too often not seen as the object of affection when it came to major motion pictures, so he didn’t want to feed into that stereotype."
See The REAL Reason Denzel Refused To Kiss White Women In Movies | I Love Old School Music
Monday, October 10, 2016
Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private - The New York Times
"With his purchase of the Miss Universe Organization, Mr. Trump was now in the business of young, beautiful women.
They craved his advice and approval, a fact he seemed to understand well.
Temple Taggart, the 21-year-old Miss Utah, was startled by how forward he was with young contestants like her in 1997, his first year as the owner of Miss USA, a branch of the beauty pageant organization. As she recalls it, he introduced himself in an unusually intimate manner.
He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, “Oh my God, gross.” He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like “Wow, that’s inappropriate.”
–Temple Taggart, 1997 Miss Utah USA
Mr. Trump disputes this, saying he is reluctant to kiss strangers on the lips. But Ms. Taggart said it was not an isolated incident."
Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private - The New York Times
Donald Trump's Indifference to the Constitution - The Atlantic
"During Sunday night’s debate, Donald Trump told Hillary Clinton that, “if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your [email] situation.” That would constitute an abuse of power. Presidents are not supposed to “instruct” their attorneys general to appoint a “special prosecutor” (now called an “independent counsel.”) The attorney general is supposed to make that decision apolitically, based on her judgment of whether the Justice Department can impartially investigate the case. By pledging that she would follow the advice of the FBI investigators looking into Clinton’s email controversy, Lynch tried to disentangle legal considerations from partisan ones. By promising that he will “instruct” his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor, Trump is pledging exactly the opposite.
But Trump didn’t stop there. He not only said he would make his attorney general appoint an independent counsel, he also vowed to determine the outcome of that counsel’s investigation. If he becomes president, Trumpdeclared, Clinton will “be in jail.”
Under the Constitution, presidents don’t decide who goes to jail. (Except insofar as they have the power to pardon). Courts decide who goes to jail based on their assessment of whether someone broke the law. But Trump’s indifference to the limits on presidential power last night wasn’t surprising. He’s been advertising it since he entered the race.
Last September, after National Review editor Rich Lowry said that Carly Fiorina had “cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon” at a GOP primary debate, Trump tweeted that Lowry “should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!” Legally, there’s a debate about whether the FCC can fine broadcasters for obscene or indecent behavior. But even if it can, the Commission is supposed to do so based on objective, apolitical criteria. Trump, by contrast, was proposing to use the obscenity laws to silence his critics in the press. Doing so would transform the FCC in the same way Trump last night proposed to transform the independent counsel: from an institution tasked with impartially interpreting the law into a weapon to be used against Trump’s political adversaries."
Donald Trump's Indifference to the Constitution - The Atlantic
Under the Constitution, presidents don’t decide who goes to jail. (Except insofar as they have the power to pardon). Courts decide who goes to jail based on their assessment of whether someone broke the law.
Last September, after National Review editor Rich Lowry said that Carly Fiorina had “cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon” at a GOP primary debate, Trump tweeted that Lowry “should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!” Legally, there’s a debate about whether the FCC can fine broadcasters for obscene or indecent behavior. But even if it can, the Commission is supposed to do so based on objective, apolitical criteria. Trump, by contrast, was proposing to use the obscenity laws to silence his critics in the press. Doing so would transform the FCC in the same way Trump last night proposed to transform the independent counsel: from an institution tasked with impartially interpreting the law into a weapon to be used against Trump’s political adversaries."
Donald Trump's Indifference to the Constitution - The Atlantic
Sexual Assault Overview - FindLaw
"Specific laws vary by state, but sexual assault generally refers to any crime in which the offender subjects the victim to sexual touching that is unwanted and offensive. These crimes can range from sexual groping or assault/battery, to attempted rape. All states prohibit sexual assault, but the exact definitions of the crimes that fall within the category of sexual assault differ from state to state. The laws share some basic elements, but the structures, wording and scope of sexual assault offenses vary considerably, so always check your local statutes for specific questions."
Sexual Assault Overview - FindLaw
Sexual Assault Overview - FindLaw
"Specific laws vary by state, but sexual assault generally refers to any crime in which the offender subjects the victim to sexual touching that is unwanted and offensive. These crimes can range from sexual groping or assault/battery, to attempted rape. All states prohibit sexual assault, but the exact definitions of the crimes that fall within the category of sexual assault differ from state to state. The laws share some basic elements, but the structures, wording and scope of sexual assault offenses vary considerably, so always check your local statutes for specific questions."
Sexual Assault Overview - FindLaw
‘Apprentice’ producers have footage of Trump using N-word: claim - NY Daily News
"Producers of "The Apprentice," the reality show Donald Trump hosted for more than 10 years, are sitting on bombshell footage of the GOP nominee using the N-word, an Emmy-award winning producer claimed Sunday.
In a series of tweets Sunday, producer Chris Nee said she's heard such tapes exist of Trump using the obscenity but isn't in possession of the footage herself.
Nee, who didn’t work on “The Apprentice,” also hinted that she, and many others, had signed a contract with Mark Burnett, the lead producer of the show, that would make anyone who leaks such footage liable to pay a $5 million fine."
‘Apprentice’ producers have footage of Trump using N-word: claim - NY Daily News
Sunday, October 09, 2016
Saturday, October 08, 2016
Wednesday, October 05, 2016
Civil rights groups demand data on nationwide police shootings | Washington Examiner
"The American Civil Liberties Union and nearly 100 other civil rights groups are pressuring the Justice Department to force state and local law enforcement agencies to report to the FBI in more detail about deaths that occur when people are in police custody.
In a notice published in the Federal Register in August, DOJ announced that it would be streamlining how state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as medical examiner's or coroner's offices, report that a person died while in police custody. However, it is hard to get the more than 18,000 agencies to voluntarily participate.
Now, the groups are proposing in a letter to the Justice Department that grants be withheld from the police departments that refuse to report the data."
Civil rights groups demand data on nationwide police shootings | Washington Examiner
In a notice published in the Federal Register in August, DOJ announced that it would be streamlining how state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as medical examiner's or coroner's offices, report that a person died while in police custody. However, it is hard to get the more than 18,000 agencies to voluntarily participate.
Now, the groups are proposing in a letter to the Justice Department that grants be withheld from the police departments that refuse to report the data."
Civil rights groups demand data on nationwide police shootings | Washington Examiner
Monday, October 03, 2016
Sunday, October 02, 2016
6 Latinos Killed by US Cops This Week—and Media Ignored It | News | teleSUR English
"Even as the police killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling continue to stir outrage over lethal police brutality and systemic racism, the death of five Latinos this week garnered little media fanfare.
6 Latinos Killed by US Cops This Week—and Media Ignored It | News | teleSUR English
Fermin Vincent Valenzuela, Vinson Ramos, Melissa Ventura, Anthony Nuñez, Pedro Villanueva and Raul Saavedra-Vargas were shot and killed by cops since Sunday, but only local media picked up the story.
IN DEPTH:
Police Terror in US
"We’re being targeted," Gloria Hernandez, an organizer against police brutality in Fresno, told teleSUR.
She has been compiling her own database of police killings in Fresno — she began with the San Joaquin Valley but the list got unwieldy — and has counted that from 2000 to 2014, over 80 percent of victims were Latino. One of the police officers killed five people without an indictment; many killed up to four. Hernandez said that she couldn't rely on media reports or support from nonprofits like the ACLU, so she went straight to the police for her numbers.
Fresno, a hub for migrant farm workers, is about half Latino. While Latino, Black and Asian activists are organizing solidarity events in the aftermath of the Dallas shooting, Hernandez said that international media only came to report on the police killing of two white people.
“The media never focused on Latinos,” she said. "We're not attractive "
6 Latinos Killed by US Cops This Week—and Media Ignored It | News | teleSUR English
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